Week 2 of 12: Time to Take This Seriously! Again…

Week Two
25 Mar

Last Updated on March 25, 2024 by Michael Brockbank

Well, here we are; two weeks into my latest fitness challenge and I’m not really challenging myself. It kind of defeats the purpose of creating a challenge if you don’t have any intention of seeing it through, right?

I’m still easily swayed by Taco Bell or if anyone asks if I need anything from the store. I really need to work on my willpower. I’ve never been the best when it came to telling people, “no.”

But, instead of restarting the challenge, I am pushing forward and seeing what I can do with the last 10 weeks. Perhaps I can play it off later as demonstrating how you can have two weeks on the fence and still turn things around if you put in the effort.

That is as long as I’m capable of putting in the effort.

How I Lost 2.2 Pounds from Last Week

Well, I suppose I can be proud that I lost 2.2 pounds from what I weighed last week. Though, if it weren’t for having severe issues on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I would have easily lost far more.

I guess I can be proud that I am curbing some of my eating habits. Despite being subjected to an onslaught of stress, I didn’t binge myself into oblivion. And I didn’t eat a Costco jar of peanut butter. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not too bad, really.

Stress and Slight Depression

It’s no secret that I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress lately. And last week, a tad of depression was added to the mix. Mostly because I wasn’t able to go home for vacation. I look forward to going to Utah every year, but it just hasn’t been in the cards for a while now.

I haven’t had a real vacation in quite some time.

Sure, I’ve been taking weekends off finally. But it’s not the same as getting out of the house for five days and being with family that I don’t get to see on a regular basis.

I took the kids out to Meow Wolf on Friday, though. It wasn’t the same as heading out to Utah, but it was a nice respite from staying home. We explored Meow Wolf for about three hours and then spent another hour and a half at Mile High Comics.

While we did have a good day on Friday, it wasn’t a complete solution and I still battle to keep myself in good spirits. No worries, though. Remember – I never give up.

Not Enough Effort

Since last week was kind of a bummer for me, it was difficult to keep up the effort. I had three days in the red where I just didn’t care about a lot of things.

That’s really the most difficult part of losing weight. If you don’t keep your head in the game, it’s easy to get sucked into despair and give up. The way I move through those phases is that I remember that I want to achieve certain goals in the future, and none of those are going to happen on their own.

I have to put in the effort if I want good things to happen.

What Are the Goals for Week Three?

OK, so, week two was a bit of a flop. However, things are still not as bad as they might look. In fact, if I keep with my diet plan, I will still hit my goal weight inside the next 10 weeks.

The trick is to keep myself going despite the rough patches.

Keeping It Green All Week

This week, let’s see if I can keep the calorie goal in the green for seven days straight. The hard part is going to be handling Easter, with all of its goodies and food. But I’ve proven before that I can keep with my diet during a Thanksgiving feast. It all comes down to being more active.

In any case, I am going to see if I can turn the entire week green on the weight loss spreadsheet. I’ve been doing great, outside of a few issues this time around. So, I know I can handle myself for the next seven days.

Steps-a-Plenty

I’m still looking at keeping a high step count. Well, at least high for me. Ideally, I would love to hit 12,500 steps per day. But as long as I can keep active enough to burn the calories, I’ll still be happy with anything over 10,000.

I wish I had access to my living room. I’d rake in all kinds of steps playing the Kinect. I get a few while playing the Oculus, but not nearly as many as when I play something like Tennis on the Xbox.

Recording steps is essentially key to burning calories and keeping with the Net 600 Calorie Diet. So, technically any activity that keeps me moving is great. I just hope the snow melts soon so I can start walking around the lake again.

Work On Telling People No

Perhaps my greatest weakness is telling people “no” when they ask if I want something. Most of the time, I answer without even thinking about it. The next thing I know, I have a Deluxe Box from Taco Bell in front of me.

The sad part is that I have food here at the house that I can make and enjoy.

I’ll need to step up my mental fortitude if I want to keep the next 10 weeks in the green. At least I’m not the binge eater I used to be, so I guess that is progress.

Morning Psyche-Ups

I need to go back to psyching myself up in the morning. Since getting my new phone, I’ve been awoken to its default alarm tune – which is a far cry from the AC/DC or Aloe Blacc I used to wake up to.

Something else I find quite useful is to avoid YouTube watching until after I’m done working for the day. It’s quite easy to get sucked into random videos instead of getting the day started. I’ll take a look at stats and what videos are performing well, but I need to avoid actually watching YouTube.

Another thing that I miss is starting my “energizing” playlist. With a house full of people, I can’t crank it up like I used to at 5 am. However, I can turn it down some and get the music playing in my office, at least.

Nightly Shorts Updates

For a while there, I wasn’t doing too badly with the nightly updates on YouTube. They’re quick and easy, and I’ve actually gained a few subscribers here and there.

Though, it appears my cat is the star of the show – but what else is new?

Anyway, I’ll get back to uploading them before it’s time to wind down. I would like to get into the habit of using my 8:45 alarm to make a Short, pour some tea, and then read a book before bed. That’ll be the plan for the week.

Let’s Turn This Around, Damnit!

Alrighty, we have a tentative plan in place. Now, let’s see if I can do something with it and get this challenge back on track. I’m quite a bit behind, but we’re not even done with the first quarter. A lot can happen in the next week.

Time to drain the pool and quit wallowing in self-pity.

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